Oh well, while it would've been nice we still have Yook and Lowell - at a fraction of the cost, I may add.

Another bat would've been nice, but good for Henry + Theo for not giving into Tex-mania.

He's signed for 8 years, 1,296 reg season games - it will be interesting to see how many of those he actually ends up playing. Never been hurt --- yet. Also will be interesting to see how many playoff or world series games that he ends up playing.

MFY really going wild and breaking the bank this offseason. Looks like the only difference between us and them is that our 95 wins will cost substantially less than their 95.

I am not sure there has ever been an offseason in which one team snagged the top three free agents, or at least the top three total contract dollar amounts (assuming Burnett does come in at #3.)

Then again, I'm not sure I'd be the one to be able to remember it if there was such an offseason.

I guess you have to give the Yankees a slightly better than average chance of making it back to the playoffs now. Still, it would take a boatload of luck for someone to look back on this offseason five years from now and be able to say that the Yanks' moves were just brilliant.

Tudor Fever: "Word. It also revives, to 2004 levels, the intensity of my lifelong hatred of the Yankees. I'm now much more fired up about next season than I was 4 hours ago."

This does remind me a bit of 2004, although the Red Sox haven't signed an ace or a closer this off-season. I have a hard time taking the Yankees seriously with all this money they're dishing out, though. One good thing is the Red Sox have handled Teixiera well in the past.

I also wonder what the Red Sox will do with the rest of their off-season. Derek Lowe is in deep negotiations with the Mets... a Peavy trade is still possible, but unlikely in my estimation... It'll be interesting to see where those guys, and Manny, land.

I am not sure even with that signing if the Yankees payroll actually goes up or not...

It actually took me off guard they signed him even though they had a glaring void at 1b.

Something must have really pissed of the Red Sox, because what is 12million over 8 years, not a deal breaker in my mind , there has to be something more to this story, or they just used the Red Sox, and Angels to drive up the price...

It is becoming more apparent to me that 2009 is WS or bust for the MFY. Every year it is that way but I think this year will be even more so as they are trying inaugurate a new stadium with a banner. With that thought I wouldn't be surprised to see the Yankees also sign Manny.

This is a bad thing for the Sox. They should have made it a priority to at least land him. And by the same logic that we all wanted him it will benefit them to have the guy. I think this is a failure on the Sox part.

we did do a similar deal with Manny and we got two WS Rings out of it. This is bad. It's turning into an all star team over there. So we shall see if our young wonder boys are really that good.

Honestly, (a) eight years and $180 million is a lot of money to commit to one person, and (b) the rumor that it includes a no-trade clause makes it even more insane. It would have been nice to see Teixeira in a Sox uni but I'd rather see $180 million spent in other ways.

If anything, it gives the Sox a little more money to spend on a long-term contract for Youkilis similar to Pedroia's.

And come on if you are taking the past 9 seasons into account as a basis for not worrying then take into account the mid 90's. After sucking for the better part of a decade they exploded and played in a lot of WS games.

I never was a huge fan of giving Teixeira 180 million. That said, I had to agree with Allan's point of "it's not my money". Of course going anywhere but to the Dankees would have made it less painful. The thing is the Sox don't piss money away for the most part. The Yankees have made a big splash like they needed for the new stadium but they have done what they have continued to do, jammed themselves for the next few years. What if CC and AJ don't stay healthy....they had a great window this year with all the payrole they dropped. It looks to be a three team race in the East this year but long term I think the Yankees hurt themselves..time will tell.

Question is, what do the Sox do with the money they have to spend? The only thing I can see right now is Sheets. Sign him to a two year contract with hugh incentives. I'd like to see an OF signed but who? What does the list think they should spend money on?

Not to get into the Boros thread again, but if the trip to Texas pissed Henry off how does that fair for future Boros clients and Tek? The problems with catchers is that there isn't a great FA out there. Do you sign the guys like Barrett and Bard and hope for a return to being at least useful. I hate the thought of giving up our young pitching to get a Texas catcher. I think I'd rather take on ARI OF's contract if it could land us Montereo and than sign a veteran C. Maybe play hardball with Tek and have him support Montereo. Can't say I feel warm and fuzzy about Baldelli.

I think I'd rather take on ARI OF's contract if it could land us Montereo and than sign a veteran C. Maybe play hardball with Tek and have him support Montereo. Can't say I feel warm and fuzzy about Baldelli.

Byrnes? I'd rather play with a 24-man roster than have that shithead around. (Hey, fart face, you still haven't touched the fooking plate!!!)

Our 4th OF needs to be RHH, but Baldelli isn't exactly the picture of health we need.

God knows what will happen with catcher. Will we trade for Teagarden? (I like him over Salty.) If so, how much do we let Texas extort? Doesn't seem like any teams are knocking on Tek's door; bringing him back for 1/6 would not be the end of the world. ... (I think.)

I hate he's a Yankee, but I'm glad we didn't make that kind of commitment. They are looking dangerous over there for the next season or 2, but they also have a history (at least recently) of underachieving. Here's to continuing the trend. And before long they will be raising the bar on poor results vs. payroll to dizzying heights.

Ah, schadenfreude!

Now can we please shit a catcher, a decent pinch-hiter, and one more solid reliever?

I really wanted Tex. Everybody keeps going on about how that's Youk money now, and Lord knows I love Youk, but I am not at all convinced that his 100 point leap in SLG is a new level of established performance for him, as opposed to an outlier season. 2008 Youk is definitely a 4/5 spot guy in the lineup. Every other year Youk is not. Giving every other year Youk a big extension is just as much not a slam dunk as a big deal for Tex would have been.

And that's not to mention the fact that the Sox' current 3B is dinged-up and aging rapidly. I love the way the team's assembled in many ways, but it's something of a telling fact that signing a 29 year old Tex would've made the lineup that much younger. He's younger than Youk is! We know Youk can play 3rd, and the Sox wouldn't have tried for Tex if they didn't know they could move Lowell. As someone else said, was that $12 mil really that big a sticking point?

Finally, it seems apparent to me that Jason Bay is not really the Manny replacement we all wanted him to be. Maybe nobody could be short of Pujols or A-Rod, but Bay's probably best in the 2 or 3 hole, and I don't think he'll be in either spot next year. Getting Tex would've shored up that cleanup spot - he's not Manny either, but IMO, he's a lot closer. The middle of the order still looks better than a lot of teams, but it would've looked a lot better with that one more big bat.

This is one case where I wish the front office had not practiced the same restraint they always do with long deals. We can laugh all we want about how those last few years of the CC/Tex/Burnett deals will be awful for the Yankees, but they've carried awful deals for a long time and still remained competitive (lest we forget, the 08 Yankees suffered a ton of injuries and had a terrible pitching staff - now the pitching staff is improved and a lot of the older players are gone). There's no doubt that the 2009 Yankees are way better than last year. I don't know if they're better than Boston or Tampa Bay, but it's neck and neck.

In Theo we trust, right? Well, I trust that he's got something in mind for the C position and that he knows he could still use another bat. Because this team is one year older than last year and still looks basically the same. That's not really a good thing.

I'm always fired up for a competitive season, but the whole "rich get richer" thing is wearying. Somehow this is not as big an issue in the NBA or NFL. I just sort of wish the Nationals could have landed Tex if Boston hadn't. Ah, well.

Every time they do stuff like this it just looks desperate to me, and like a little kid stomping his feet cause he wants every toy in the toystore. Fuck em, they're still going down. And that fugtastic biotch texwhora can go rot with a team that hasn't won a championship since 2000 instead of coming to one that's won two in three years. Yah, good job pal.